Powys-Lybbe Forbears - Person Sheet
Powys-Lybbe Forbears - Person Sheet
NameThomas Smythe 
[49, Table 1], [54, His son, Thomas Smythe's article], [54, His own article], [56, London of 1633-4-5, pub Harleian 1880, p. 245], [56, London of 1568, pub Harleian 1869, p. 69]
[49, Table 1], [54, His son, Thomas Smythe's article], [54, His own article], [56, London of 1633-4-5, pub Harleian 1880, p. 245], [56, London of 1568, pub Harleian 1869, p. 69]Birthca 1522
Death7 Jun 1591
BurialAshford parish church - monument
GeneralCustomer of London. Of Ostenhanger, Kent.
Notes for Thomas Smythe
He had a son Sir Thomas Smythe or Smith (c.1558-1625), governor of East India company, who is in DNB.
Arms Generally notes for Thomas Smythe
Arms: Per pale or and azure, a chevron argent between three lions counterchanged.
Crest: A tiger's head erased argent pelletté, collared sable bezanté and chained or.
OR, reportedly from Edmondson as granted in 1591:
Arms: A chevron engrailed between three lions passant-guardant or
Crest: A leopard’s head erased argent, spotted sable, collared and lined or.
Crest: A tiger's head erased argent pelletté, collared sable bezanté and chained or.
OR, reportedly from Edmondson as granted in 1591:
Arms: A chevron engrailed between three lions passant-guardant or
Crest: A leopard’s head erased argent, spotted sable, collared and lined or.
DNB Main notes for Thomas Smythe
Smith or Smythe, Thomas 1522-1591
Name: Smith or Smythe, Thomas
Dates: 1522-1591
Active Date: 1562
Gender: Male
Field of Interest: Business and Industry
Occupation: Merchant, financier, and entrepreneur
Spouse: Sir Andrew Judde, a wealthy City merchant and Kent landowner...
Likenesses: 1..., 2...
Sources: S. T. Bindoff, The House of Commons 1509-1558, vol...
Contributor: Brian Dietz
Article
Smith or Smythe, Thomas 1522-1591, merchant, financier, and entrepreneur, was the second son of John Smith, clothier and small landowner of Corsham, Wiltshire, and his wife Joan, daughter of Robert Brouncker of Melksham. Supported by a small inheritance from his father, who died in 1538, Smith gained his freedom of the Haberdashers’ Company and subsequently of the Skinners’, the company of Sir Andrew Judde [q.v.], a wealthy City merchant and Kent landowner, whose daughter, Alice, he married about 1555. Secure in business and society/he was a Merchant Adventurer, Muscovy merchant, and MP at the time of his marriage/Smith abandoned a conventional career in commerce when he took up the collectorship of the subsidy on imports at the port of London in 1558. Through his association with the customs, which earned him the title of ‘customer’, Smith entered the realms of government finance and court patronage and politics. The move was highly profitable, particularly after the negotiation of his first lease of the duties on imported goods at London in 1570. Over eighteen years it is estimated that the farm yielded around £50,000 net profit.
Throughout this period Smith enjoyed the confidence of the lord treasurer, William Cecil, Baron Burghley, and Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester [qq.v.], from whom Smith subleased the farm of the duties on the import of sweet wines after 1573. The relationships were indeed so close that suspicions arose that Burghley, who helped Smith to clear a substantial profit on an alum deal in 1578, and Leicester, who referred in his will to his ‘great love’ of the ‘customer’, shared in the profits of the farm. Sir Walter Raleigh [q.v.] was not alone in believing that they were, in his words, ‘pensioners to Customer Smith’. Some of the profits of the farm were put into land in Kent, where he added substantially to properties acquired through marriage, and in Wiltshire, where he built a fine house at Corsham. Smith also invested in industrial and overseas enterprises. He was particularly active in the affairs of the Societies of the Mines Royal and of the Mineral and Battery Works, either as manager or as lessee of their rights. By comparison his interest in overseas enterprise was slight. Shares were bought in the venture of Sir Humphrey Gilbert [q.v.] in 1578 and in the ‘troublesome voyage’ of Edward Fenton [q.v.] in 1582, but the ‘Thomas Smith’ [q.v.] who was associated with the Roanoke voyages and with the Levant Company was almost certainly his son and namesake. Mr Customer Smith did however acquire a dubious reputation for dealing in prize goods.
Smith died a wealthy man 7 June 1591. He was survived by Alice and their six sons and six daughters. The eldest son, John, was ancestor of the Lords Strangford; Thomas, the second son, was eminent in commerce and colonization. According to the monument erected by John in Ashford parish church his father had cherished ‘the professors of true religion’ and promoted literature. The mathematician Thomas Hood [q.v.] was one who acknowledged a debt to Smith. Mention is also made of his lease of the customs and the way ‘he presided over them with singular liberality towards those of higher rank’. Of several portraits the finest is in the possession of Queens’ College, Cambridge.
Sources
S. T. Bindoff, The House of Commons 1509-1558, vol. iii, 1982; P. W. Hasler, The House of Commons 1558-1603, vol. iii, 1981; J. F. Wadmore, ‘Thomas Smythe of Westenhanger, Commonly Called Customer Smythe’, Archaeologia Cantiana, vol. xvii, 1887, pp. 193-208.
Contributor: Brian Dietz
published 1993
Name: Smith or Smythe, Thomas
Dates: 1522-1591
Active Date: 1562
Gender: Male
Field of Interest: Business and Industry
Occupation: Merchant, financier, and entrepreneur
Spouse: Sir Andrew Judde, a wealthy City merchant and Kent landowner...
Likenesses: 1..., 2...
Sources: S. T. Bindoff, The House of Commons 1509-1558, vol...
Contributor: Brian Dietz
Article
Smith or Smythe, Thomas 1522-1591, merchant, financier, and entrepreneur, was the second son of John Smith, clothier and small landowner of Corsham, Wiltshire, and his wife Joan, daughter of Robert Brouncker of Melksham. Supported by a small inheritance from his father, who died in 1538, Smith gained his freedom of the Haberdashers’ Company and subsequently of the Skinners’, the company of Sir Andrew Judde [q.v.], a wealthy City merchant and Kent landowner, whose daughter, Alice, he married about 1555. Secure in business and society/he was a Merchant Adventurer, Muscovy merchant, and MP at the time of his marriage/Smith abandoned a conventional career in commerce when he took up the collectorship of the subsidy on imports at the port of London in 1558. Through his association with the customs, which earned him the title of ‘customer’, Smith entered the realms of government finance and court patronage and politics. The move was highly profitable, particularly after the negotiation of his first lease of the duties on imported goods at London in 1570. Over eighteen years it is estimated that the farm yielded around £50,000 net profit.
Throughout this period Smith enjoyed the confidence of the lord treasurer, William Cecil, Baron Burghley, and Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester [qq.v.], from whom Smith subleased the farm of the duties on the import of sweet wines after 1573. The relationships were indeed so close that suspicions arose that Burghley, who helped Smith to clear a substantial profit on an alum deal in 1578, and Leicester, who referred in his will to his ‘great love’ of the ‘customer’, shared in the profits of the farm. Sir Walter Raleigh [q.v.] was not alone in believing that they were, in his words, ‘pensioners to Customer Smith’. Some of the profits of the farm were put into land in Kent, where he added substantially to properties acquired through marriage, and in Wiltshire, where he built a fine house at Corsham. Smith also invested in industrial and overseas enterprises. He was particularly active in the affairs of the Societies of the Mines Royal and of the Mineral and Battery Works, either as manager or as lessee of their rights. By comparison his interest in overseas enterprise was slight. Shares were bought in the venture of Sir Humphrey Gilbert [q.v.] in 1578 and in the ‘troublesome voyage’ of Edward Fenton [q.v.] in 1582, but the ‘Thomas Smith’ [q.v.] who was associated with the Roanoke voyages and with the Levant Company was almost certainly his son and namesake. Mr Customer Smith did however acquire a dubious reputation for dealing in prize goods.
Smith died a wealthy man 7 June 1591. He was survived by Alice and their six sons and six daughters. The eldest son, John, was ancestor of the Lords Strangford; Thomas, the second son, was eminent in commerce and colonization. According to the monument erected by John in Ashford parish church his father had cherished ‘the professors of true religion’ and promoted literature. The mathematician Thomas Hood [q.v.] was one who acknowledged a debt to Smith. Mention is also made of his lease of the customs and the way ‘he presided over them with singular liberality towards those of higher rank’. Of several portraits the finest is in the possession of Queens’ College, Cambridge.
Sources
S. T. Bindoff, The House of Commons 1509-1558, vol. iii, 1982; P. W. Hasler, The House of Commons 1558-1603, vol. iii, 1981; J. F. Wadmore, ‘Thomas Smythe of Westenhanger, Commonly Called Customer Smythe’, Archaeologia Cantiana, vol. xvii, 1887, pp. 193-208.
Contributor: Brian Dietz
published 1993